12 Ways To Get Language Learners Talking: Get The Best of Edutopia in Your Inbox Each Week

1 2 W AY S T O G E T L AN G U AG E L E AR N E R S
T AL K I N G
1. Who’s Telling the Truth? Have each student write three
facts about themselves that nobody in the class knows on
a piece of paper. Make sure each student includes their
name on the top of the page. Collect the sheets of paper
and bring three students to the front of the room. Read
aloud one of the facts that is true for one of these three
students.
All three claim that the fact is theirs, and the class then
proceeds to question them in an attempt to determine
who is telling the truth and who is lying. Each student is
allowed to ask one question to one of the three
students. After a round of questioning, the students guess
who is telling the truth.
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2. Variations on the game Taboo: For variation 1, create a
PowerPoint presentation with a noun on each slide. Have
one student come to the front of the room and sit with
their back to the PowerPoint. The rest of the
students take turns describing the words on the slides,
and the student at the front has to guess them.
For variation 2, separate the students into groups of four

or five. Place a pile of cards with random nouns in the
center of each group. Have students take turns describing
a noun for their group members to guess. The group
member who guesses correctly keeps the card, so there’s
competition to see who has the most cards at the end of
the game.
Variation 3 is for advanced speakers. Separate the class

into two teams. Students are given a word to describe to
their teammates, in addition to a list of words that they
cannot use in their description. Each student should have
two to three minutes to see how many words their
teammates can guess.
3. Descriptive drawing activity: Pair up the students and

give each student a picture, placing it face down so
partners cannot see each other’s cards. They must
describe the picture for their partner to draw.
4. Comic strip descriptions: Give each student a portion of

a comic strip. Without showing their pictures to one
another, the students should attempt to describe their
image, and put the comic strip into the correct order. After
about 10 minutes, the students can guess the order, show
one another their portion, and see if they were correct.
5. Secret word: Students are given a random topic and a

random word that is unrelated to the topic. The students
must hide the word in a speech about the topic—they’re
trying to make sure the other students can’t guess
the secret word. The other students listen carefully to the
speech and attempt to guess the secret word.
6. Debates: Give each student a piece of paper with
“agree” written on one side and “disagree” on the other
side. Read aloud a controversial statement, and have
each student hold up their paper showing the agree or
disagree side depending on their opinion. Choose one
student from each side to explain their position and
participate in a short debate.
7. Impromptu speaking: Prepare a list of topics that

students will be able to talk about. Split the class into two
teams, and have each student choose a number—that’s
the order they will go in. Each student will respond to a
statement without preparation. They must continue
speaking for 45 seconds. As the student is speaking, the
other team listens for moments of hesitation, grammatical
mistakes, and vocabulary mistakes. If the other team can
correctly identify an error, they get a point.
8. Desert island activity: Give each student a piece of

paper and tell them to draw an item—any item. Collect
the drawings and pass them out again; no student should
receive their own drawing.
Next, tell the students that they’ve been stranded on a

desert island, and only half of the class can survive and
continue to inhabit the island. The only thing each student
will have on the island is the item depicted in the drawing
given to them, and their goal is to convince the class that
they should survive based on that item.
9. Storytelling activity: Bring four students to the front of
the classroom. Three of them should sit in a row, and
one should stand behind them and act as a
controller. Give the controller a stack of cards with nouns
written on them.
The controller will hand a noun to one of the three

students, who will start to tell a story. The student
continues telling the story until the controller decides to
hand another noun to another student, who will then take
over the story.
10. Two Truths, One Lie: Each student should write three
statements about themselves on a piece of paper. Two of
them should be true, and one should be a lie. Students
read their three statements, and their
classmates question them to try to determine which
statement is a lie.
11. True/false storytelling: Give each student a piece of

paper with either “true” or “false” written on it. Each
student should tell the class a story that is true or false,
depending on which word they received, and the class
must guess whether it’s true. To add to the activity, you
can allow the other students to question the student
telling the story.
12. I Have Never...: All students in the class should start

this activity holding five fingers in the air (you can use
less fingers to do this more quickly). The student who
goes first tells the class one thing that they have never
done. The students who have done that activity should
put a finger down, and tell the class a story about this
activity. A student is out of the game when all of their
fingers are down.
1. Investigative Journalist is a classic pair work activity for a

reason: it works!
It can be used in a variety of scenarios and tailored according to specific

grammar or vocabulary points that you’ve been reviewing in class.
The basis of investigative journalist is for students to interview one another in

pairs and present their findings. It can be used for groups at all skill levels from
beginning to advanced, as long as you tailor it to their levels.
Beginners may do a simple version, asking their partners about their family
structure, favorite colors and foods, pets and hobbies. Intermediate students
could use investigative journalist to practice past tense structures by asking
about their interlocutor’s childhood. Advanced students might benefit from a
murder mystery version of the game, where each student is assigned a character
to play and the game concludes with the “murderer” being sussed out as a result
of the questions.
A great way to prepare students for this versatile activity, no matter their level,
is with authentic videos of English conversations. Tools like FluentU offer fun,
real-world English videos they can watch either once you’ve paired them up, or
ahead of class for homework.
The FluentU videos are all organized by level and come with interactive
captions, flashcards and exercises to help students pick up new words as they
watch. Through these supercharged English dialogues, news reports, interviews,
movie clips and more, they’ll get comfortable with the types of basic English
conversations investigative journalist requires.
Have fun with this game, and remember: if you give your students the tools to
succeed, they’ll surprise you!
2. Debate
Debate is another classic that can incorporate pair or group work, depending on
the size of your class. Create groups and assign each group or pair a side of an
argument. Use pair work time to allow students to develop their argument and
conclude with a class-wide debate.
Debate is made even more interesting when you present students with authentic
materials to use as support for their claims.
3. What’s Your Secret?
What’s your secret? is a pair work activity that truly involves the whole class.
In this game, which is a play on investigative journalist, each student writes a
secret down on a piece of paper, things like: “I play the clarinet.” or “I have a
twin.” The papers are placed in a hat and each student draws one: that’s where
the game begins.
What’s your secret? can either be played by allowing students to mill about the
classroom freely or by setting up a speed dating scenario, where each pair has 1
minute to speak before rotating. Students may ask one another yes/no
questions—they may not ask directly if what’s on the piece of paper is true
about them or not.
Students then must guess to whom the secret they drew belongs.
4. It’s Your Turn: Teach a Class!
Teach a class! is a fun activity for advanced ESL students. In this activity, you
assign each pair a grammar, vocab or culture point that they’ll have to teach to
the class. The pair works together to prepare activities and lesson plans and
teaches the point to the class.
Unlike many of these other activities, the conclusion portion of this activity is
built right in: when the pair teaches the class, the teacher should play the role of
the student, but you may evaluate the lesson at the end and feel free to correct
any mistakes the “teachers” make!
5. Following Directions
Following directions is an interesting game that offers a change from

classroom routine.
In this game, each student in the pair draws a picture, keeping their paper
shielded from the eyes of their partner. Ideally, pictures should be fairly
geometric. Once the picture is complete, they explain to their partner, using
words only, how to replicate the image.
For example, if a student has drawn the stereotypical square house with a
triangle roof, he might say: “Draw a square in the middle of the paper that’s
about a third of the size of the paper. Draw an equilateral triangle on top of the
square, using the top side of the square as the bottom side of the triangle.”
The goal of this game is for each partner to replicate the other’s drawing going
by these spoken directions.
6. Games! Yes, No
Many pair work activities can feel like games, but sometimes it’s fun to
introduce some real games into the mix.
Yes, no is a game where the only two words that students aren’t allowed to say
are yes and no. Pair students off and play. When a student loses, he or she is out
and the winning partner is paired with another winning partner. In this way, you
can create a tournament of yes, no.
Other versions of the game also forbid “maybe” and “I.” Consider these
versions when the game is lasting too long or students need an extra challenge.
7. Games! Guess Who
Guess who is a version of 20 questions that focuses entirely on people.
Students draw the name of a famous person out of a hat (you’ll need to prepare
these slips in advance!) and their partner tries to guess who’s on the paper by
asking a series of yes/no questions.
Like yes, no, guess who can be turned into a tournament-style game.

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1 2 W AY S T O G E T L AN G U AG E L E AR N E R S

Get the best of Edutopia in your inbox each week.

For variation 2, separate the students into groups of four

Variation 3 is for advanced speakers. Separate the class

3. Descriptive drawing activity: Pair up the students and

4. Comic strip descriptions: Give each student a portion of

5. Secret word: Students are given a random topic and a

7. Impromptu speaking: Prepare a list of topics that

8. Desert island activity: Give each student a piece of

Next, tell the students that they’ve been stranded on a

The controller will hand a noun to one of the three

11. True/false storytelling: Give each student a piece of

12. I Have Never...: All students in the class should start

1. Investigative Journalist is a classic pair work activity for a

It can be used in a variety of scenarios and tailored according to specific

The basis of investigative journalist is for students to interview one another in

3. What’s Your Secret?

4. It’s Your Turn: Teach a Class!

Following directions is an interesting game that offers a change from

7. Games! Guess Who

Guess who is a version of 20 questions that focuses entirely on people.

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